Corsaire 2
by icinks
Summary: "Tell me again why we're in this godforsaken place," said Inaho as he watched his companion crouch on the floor of the cave they had taken refuge in and gently breathe embers to life. It was the twelfth of September, and a rather ferocious summer storm had taken them by surprise while they were setting up camp on the beach.
1. Chapter 1

"Tell me again why we're in this godforsaken place," said Inaho as he watched his companion crouch on the floor of the cave they had taken refuge in and gently breathe embers to life. It was the twelfth of September, and a rather ferocious summer storm had taken them by surprise while they were setting up camp on the beach.

Troyard carefully added tinder to the growing fire. "This will benefit both nations, as well as those of us in between, Kaizuka. You must be aware of that," Troyard replied, eyes still fixed on his task. He added some larger twigs and pulled back as they popped and crackled from the dampness.

"If this so-called power has any real value, you mean." Only a few months after his time as a captive aboard the Tharsis, Troyard had approached him - or rather, accosted him in the middle of the ocean, having somehow learnt of his current whereabouts and pursuing as relentlessly as ever - and after helping himself to a particularly expensive bottle of wine, announced he wished to investigate something supposedly of utmost importance. Throughout their unfortunately long dinner, during which Inaho more than once despaired of ever getting rid of his unwelcome guest, Troyard had spilled forth his glorious plan to find and claim the legendary Aldnoah. Skeptical as he was, Inaho had somehow been conned into agreeing to accompany Troyard on this fool's errand, and thus here he was, very wet and uncomfortable, with only the pack on his back and the clothes on his body to provide comfort and security in the dreaded coming days.

Having coaxed the fire to a steady flame, Troyard stood up and brushed the soil from his hands. "You still doubt it? My father spent his life searching for Aldnoah-"

"And his death..." Inaho added under his breath.

"According to him, it has the power to help thousands. It could end hunger, bring prosperity and safety to all. The information he gathered is substantial," Troyard explained once more, as he had a dozen times over every time Inaho expressed misgivings, "He was the only one to keep looking for it, when all of Vers gave up."

"Vers was a mistake from the beginning. Colonizing a desert is inadvisable no matter how you look at it, whether some mystical power exists there or not. Which, given your father's data and our current location, it does not." They had anchored in the small cove of an uninhabited island, quite distant from either nation, or any civilization for that matter.

"You may be right," admitted Troyard, "but there's no going back now. The mistake's been made, and someone's got to mend it. The way this world is headed, everything will collapse eventually."

Troyard had a point, but that point still had little to do with him. 'Eventually' was the key word that let him off the hook, in his opinion. "It's not really my responsibility…" he muttered, crouching by the fire to toast his clammy fingers. The air was cooling a little too quickly, perhaps because it was nearly nightfall. "Someone else can play hero. We've done our best and worst already, it's time we stepped aside and let some other fools drive themselves to ruin. Why is it so cold here? It's only September..."

Troyard pressed a hand to his forehead and gave a long, deliberate sigh. "If you're only going to complain, why did you come, Kaizuka?" he asked, as if he hadn't been a tremendous pest about this for weeks until Inaho had finally given in.

"I'm curious. This Aldnoah - I'm sure it exists. There is evidence of it all over the globe. What I want to know, however, is _what_ exactly it is. Is it science? Is it god? Is it an elaborate hoax? A joke? I'll endure trekking through the jungle with you if it means finding an answer."

That was only part of his reason for coming. Aside from having been practically forced into it, the most important motivation for his eventual acquiescence was the realization that if Troyard's information and instincts proved correct, and he succeeded in finding what it was he was looking for, the man would come in direct contact with an overwhelming amount of power. Troyard was undeniably dangerous, and if the past said anything about the current, unrestricted version of him, extremely susceptible to the allure of strength, influence, and authority. And while his intentions were perhaps, usually, commendable, his methods were historically far less so. Thus, Inaho had agreed to come primarily to prevent anything catastrophic from happening should this Aldnoah have the ability to truly make drastic changes in the world. If they uncovered the legend, he would either seize it before Troyard could lay a finger on it, destroy it, or otherwise seal it away forever if possible.

Troyard looked at him with wry amusement. "That's it? Curiosity?" he was obviously not buying it, but Inaho hardly assumed he would. In fact, he was fairly certain Troyard had already guessed his true purpose, but in the end it mattered little whether he knew or not. It would likely come down to some kind of conflict in the end regardless. Troyard took a draught from his canteen, wiped his mouth, and stuffed it back in his pack. "None of that bothersome philanthropy for you, I see. Well, as long as you're dedicated, I don't particularly care what you're here for."

Inaho watched the other wander off a little ways to examine the walls of the cavern. "In any case," said Inaho, "there was absolutely no reason for us to come alone. Even a few extra hands could prove very helpful, we don't know what kinds of trouble we'll be facing, or if there are potentially hostile inhabitants on this island." He certainly hoped there were none. Melee combat was not his forte, and one encounter with captivity in his lifetime was more than enough.

He heard Troyard laugh somewhere at the back of the cave, obscured by the darkness. "That's precisely _why_ we came alone. You've still only got a skeleton crew, what would you do if they died here?"

"There's no one particularly outstanding among them, they can be replaced."

"Oh? Chilling words from the man who once accused me of treating my men with cruelty. Anyhow, you won't recruit anyone worthwhile with a piece of driftwood like _that_ for a ship."

Inaho jabbed the already fading fire with a stick. "Sleipnir is practical."

"Sleipnir is an atrocity. That's why you need a more interesting reputation, or at least a less unpopular one, or you'll only ever gain the desperate bottom feeders whose greatest ambition is to obtain enough coins to afford pleasurable company at the next port. Honestly, with your charm it's a wonder you have any crew at all."

"I don't recall asking your advice on this matter," Inaho muttered. This discussion was getting a little too personal, and Troyard's ever nebulous intentions still consistently unsettled him. It was easy to get comfortable with that spirited chatter, but Inaho knew better than to unquestioningly accept it as harmless.

"When we return, I'll take you to some places," Troyard offered, "You're bound to find _someone_ of value if you're with me."

This was likely true. Troyard was as much an idol in some circles as he was a villain in others. It was extraordinary the way people rallied around him, even now in his infamy. Yet accepting aid from Troyard, aside from being immensely disagreeable even in theory, would certainly come with some kind of hefty price. He would like to avoid owing Troyard if at all possible. Ever. "Troyard, I have no interest in your disreputable haunts," he declined strategically, playing a very flimsy propriety card.

"Nothing in this line of work is reputable, Kaizuka. May as well embrace it. Ah!" he exclaimed, "Look at this!"

Filing away the response just forming on his tongue for later discussion, Inaho hauled himself to his feet, took a branch from the fire, and followed after Troyard's voice. "What is it? A clue?" He moved the simple torch slowly to guide his way.

Troyard was standing at the back of the cavern looking intently at something on the wall. "I'm not sure. See this writing?" he pointed to series of engraved markings. They were surprisingly clear and free from the wear of time.

Inaho held the flame closer and contemplatively traced the lines and curves with his fingertips. "This here was in a page you saved from your father's notebook, right?"

"Yes, and this one, too," Troyard tapped another section, and immediately the entire passage of writing illuminated in a white flash.

Inaho retracted his own hand instantly, but the floor beneath them had already vanished, and the light became a distant vision as they tumbled into darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

The drop was not nearly as far as Inaho had imagined, though the sensation of falling into a potentially endless abyss was far from pleasant. Surprised, justifiably terrified, and without anything else to grab onto, the two had shamelessly clung to each other in their descent. The almost immediate impact with the ground came as a welcome relief for the split second before they began to roll further down into the hole, and then they were falling again, much further this time. While having Troyard to cushion his final landing was fortunate for his own wellbeing, he found himself worrying whether the other man was alive, or if he'd crushed him to death. A soft groan confirmed the former.

"Good god you're heavy, get off of me!" Troyard complained, though still too stunned to move.

Inaho carefully slipped his hands from beneath Troyard's head, which he'd somehow had the foresight to protect from dashing against the ground as they tumbled along, and slowly crawled off of him.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his genuine concern mostly due to the fact that his companion's health had much to do with his own at this point.

"Barely, no thanks to you," Troyard shot back, and Inaho could hear him sitting up, "What is this place?"

"I don't know, I didn't finish reading the inscription before you set it off."

As if to punctuate his words, the white light above went out and they could hear the door that had opened beneath them, now distant, slowly close again.

Troyard swore under his breath. "I should have known this place would be booby trapped. No wonder no one's ever returned from this quest."

"You failed to mention that before..." muttered Inaho as he crawled around a bit and felt along the wall and ground. "But I don't believe this is a trap."

"How is this not a trap?"

"There are no bodies. If it were a trap, there should be a pile of them. I doubt we're the only ones to have ever chanced upon this place, so somewhere here must be a way out, at least to another chamber or - ah," he stopped abruptly.

"What? What did you find?" Troyard's eager inquiry almost sounded spooked.

It was the perfect time for a practical joke, and Inaho wished it _was_ a joke, but there in the inky darkness before him was the unmistakable feel and form of a skeleton. "It… feels like bones."

"Spectacular," Troyard replied dryly, though not without an edge of worry to his voice. "So it _is_ a trap."

It was hardly his job to provide encouragement, but talking through the situation rationally with Troyard was the best option. "No, this doesn't mean there's no way out," he reasoned. It was really too bad the fall had snuffed out his makeshift torch, because they could use some light right about now. "They might've just fallen on their head, or been too dull-witted to consider looking for an exit."

"You do realize that at one time, that was a living, breathing, human being, right?"

"Actually, it could be an animal. I'd rather not touch it any more than necessary, so we'll assume it's human for the time being," and with that he crept past the pile of unidentified bones, continuing his search for some form of exit.

Troyard sighed audibly. "That wasn't my point. Anyway, shouldn't there be a pair of them? I mean, it took two people to activate that mechanism just now. If it's an animal, it came out from this so-called exit or pathway you speak of, which I might add would be a concern rather than a relief."

This was admittedly true - an animal might prove an added danger, especially since they hadn't brought any sort of hunting gear aside from knives and pistols - the latter would be far too dangerous to use in a dark, enclosed space - and any creature that lived in this kind of environment must be at an incredible advantage as far as the senses were concerned. He turned his thoughts back to the human option. "I don't feel any others. If this is the only body, and it's a human, there must be a way out, then. Help me look."

In the meantime, Inaho was simply glad it wasn't rotting flesh he'd just touched. And considering he'd already thought of the possibility of finding something dead here, dry bones was somewhat of a relief. The clean, moist, earthy scent in the air was another comforting assurance that nothing recently deceased was lurking nearby for his searching hands to find.

"Got left for dead, did you?" Troyard muttered to the skeleton with a cynical laugh as he scuffed along on all fours, "I suppose some partnerships weren't meant to last."

Indeed - this poor fellow's had been unfortunately short, if betrayal had been his end. It seemed odd for someone to kill their companion so early on, though, with no apparent motivation. There was only one conclusion he could reach given their current understanding of their surroundings. "Starvation can lead to desperate measures," he reasoned aloud, "If that was the case, we can assume the exit is very well hidden and could take some time to find. This pit seems extensive."

There was a pause in the shuffling behind him, and then a quiet "I sincerely hope it won't come to that, Kaizuka."

"Indeed. Speaking of, do you have your pack?"

"I… left it by the fire."

Inaho quickly ran the mental mathematics for their supplies, estimated rations, and number of expected days before exhausting their current stash. "We'll be alright for four days, at most," he concluded.

"That's not bad, I suppose. Hold up, don't you have heaps of food with you?"

Ignoring Troyard's assumption that he planned on sharing - though given the unpleasant implications of their recent discussion, it might be in his own best interest to do so - he brusquely pointed out the real issue at hand. "Yes, but we only have one, near-empty canteen. I had meant to fill it and the others at the creek but then the storm came up."

"Ah… water."

Though admittedly the vindictive streak in him found it almost fitting for Troyard to suffer from extreme thirst, he did not wish to repeat the experience himself. The following moments were filled only with the sound of fabric dragging across dirt and stone as they searched tirelessly for some kind of opening. There had to be one.

What must have been hours passed and not one hole or crevice or door could be found. As far as they could tell, they were in a cylindrical stone pit with a comparatively thin layer of dirt over the rock below them. The walls were too smooth to climb, there was not even a single crack in them that might indicate a loose stone opening to a passageway. What they did find was four more skeletons. Not exactly a pleasant discovery, but the math was in their favor. With five total, either a third had fallen in with a pair, or at least one person had made it out.

"Did your father's research include anything about this?" asked Inaho, at last leaning back against the wall and trying to think through this rationally. He was finding it difficult to do so when the reality of the situation was hanging so heavily in the air. The complete darkness was not exactly calming, either.

He heard Troyard settle nearby to this left. "He wrote almost exclusively about Aldnoah itself, except the single hypothesis that there was once a connected ancient civilization, and that it might be located where such a people group once existed. Not a word about caves and traps."

"I see." He would have liked to have read the notebook for himself, but Troyard apparently no longer possessed it, having committed it to memory and burned it, save for a few pages containing an incomplete cryptograph and a few illustrations. Yet another reason to be cautious. If Troyard had already established that his value was greater alive than dead, he would need a similar insurance. There was no telling what kind of troubles lay ahead, if they ever even managed to make it out of this pit. He shivered as his damp clothes were chilled in the drafty air.

"A draft…" It was the most obvious evidence of an exit, but where was it? Was it coming from where they had entered? But that had sealed up after them…

"Up."

Inaho looked habitually in the direction of Troyard's voice. The pause must have communicated his questioning look, because Troyard elaborated. "The exit is above us. It took two of us to get in here, it takes two to get out… come, stand up." He felt a hand on his arm, pulling him forward. "Hold still," Troyard instructed. A moment later there was a boot on either shoulder and he was slowly walking the perimeter, face to the wall as Troyard felt along above.

"Why am I on the bottom…" he groused. Troyard's boots were digging painfully, and the man was not exactly light either. "Are you going to abandon me here, as well?" They now had a decent idea of why there was an odd number of skeletons in the pit. Being used as a ladder and then left to starve alone in the dark was only a slightly less unpleasant thought than the murdered-and-eaten theory.

"Of course not," Troyard responded, "You simply don't have the strength required to pull me up from above."

It was true that Troyard was taller, broader, and weightier than him, and though it had healed up well over the past several months, his shoulder was still not quite what it used to be. It would be far easier for Troyard to pull him up than the other way around. The fact did little to assuage his current vexation, however, or the increasing discomfort in his shoulders. And Troyard had called _him_ heavy.

"Found it!" Troyard exclaimed with rather shaky relief. The pressure on his shoulders vanished as Troyard crawled into what was presumably a passageway above. "Give me your hand."

They groped around in the darkness until their hands eventually met, and Troyard began to haul him up. It was a struggle, but after being dropped twice, and having his arms dragged across stone, and nearly knocking himself unconscious colliding with Troyard as he came up, at last he was safely out of the pit.

* * *

Inaho followed wordlessly behind Troyard as they crawled through the passageway. It was not quite high enough to sit up in, which was extremely uncomfortable in more than the physical sense. That, with the continuous lack of any light whatsoever, made him incredibly uneasy as the feeling of needing to escape this tight, enclosed space began to build, threatening to turn to panic at any moment. He could hear Troyard right in front of him, but every so often he reached out with one hand just to be sure the man was still there, and he wasn't following something else entirely. He wasn't one to be superstitious, or believe much at all in the way of the supernatural, but this place had already proved itself to be rather eerie. The last thing he wanted was to get separated now, or find himself being led along by some creature bent on luring him to his death. The tunnel seemed eternal, and so eventually they were forced to stop and rest as best they could in such tight quarters. Laying flat out on their stomachs was the most comfortable position. Turning around was near impossible. He hoped nothing would come at them from the front, because they would be forced to retreat by crawling backwards, or risk getting stuck in an attempt to turn. It was small consolation that Troyard would be killed first in such an attack.

"Shall we press on?" asked Troyard reluctantly, when some minutes had passed.

Inaho agreed and they took up their crawling again. He wondered where in the world this lead to, and whether they weren't simply crawling to their untimely deaths, or even straight around the globe. If the underworld truly existed, he wouldn't be surprised if this tunnel led straight to its ghastly gates. Yet they never reached anything. On and on they went, knees scraping along the bumpy floor of the tube they were creeping through like voles in a garden bed, palms cut and swollen from the unaccustomed wear and strain. Every so often he heard a thump, and a variety of curses, as Troyard hit his head on some low-hanging portion of the ceiling. Fortunately, they were not traveling fast enough for the collisions to cause any real damage to his skull, but he was likely to have a rather bluish forehead once they got into the light again.

"Did you hear that?" asked Troyard, stopping with such abruptness that Inaho's face collided forcefully with his rear.

Inaho clutched his nose. "No. What did it sound like?"

There was a pause, and he wondered whether Troyard had heard him, until the uncertain response eventually came: "Birds… I think."

"Birds? An exit…" He had been so certain they were going downward all this time, from the angle and pressure on his wrists.

"I think there's light ahead… I'm going to check it out."

Inaho gave some absent minded response, his attention being occupied with the strangeness of the stone beneath him, which he had stopped to investigate. The floor had changed somehow, but he wasn't quite sure in what way.

"Troyard, stop!" he warned, far too late. That strange floor was moving away from him, sliding back into the walls, and he crawled desperately after Troyard, trying not to think about what kind of chasm he would vanish into this time. As he felt himself falling once again, he wondered if Troyard at least had made it to safety. The frigid embrace of water banished all further thought. It dragged at his clothes and stiffened his already tensed muscles, and once the initial splash and rush were over, he was left in silence with only the thump of his own heartbeat in his ears. Then, very suddenly, came the terrible realization of what had happened, and that he was both unable to breathe and horribly disoriented. His arms and legs knocked against the walls as he began a frantic search for the surface.

Seconds passed. His lungs felt as though they might burst from holding in the small measure of air he'd managed to gasp in his fall. The pool was only slightly wider than the tunnel above, and its stone walls scraped and bruised, too slippery to grab hold of and only serving to trap him in as he pounded bitterly at them. Eventually he tried to brace himself between them, his energy at its limit even if he had known which direction to swim. Where was the surface? _Where was the air?_ His feet ached to touch some kind of solid ground. Just one reassuring tap... But the bottom could be leagues away. He would rather die where he was than drift endlessly down into this abyss, where anything could be lurking in the darkness. With his shoulders pressed to one wall and his knees to the other, he clung to the hope that he would soon fall unconscious, and avoid having to fully experience the rest of this.

Time dragged on. Everything was numb except his mind and his aching chest. He would not be able to hold his position for much longer. Perhaps if he inhaled, it would speed things up. Every fiber of him wanted to take a breath. Just one...

He had almost opened his mouth when a white light appeared. It was not terribly far away, but it was too far for him now. His muscles relaxed and he let himself fall, and as he slipped away, he saw something move above. The water stirred around it, sending tiny waves and bubbles to caress his frigid skin. Someone was grabbing hold of him, and he thought he must be dreaming as he was pulled towards that blinding light.


	3. Chapter 3

The light was too bright. It hurt his eye even though it was closed. Someone was carrying him, and he didn't care who or where, so long as it was away from where he just was. Nearly as soon as he was pulled from the water he had begun coughing it out of his lungs, into which he must have inhaled it after all at some point on the way up. Each breath was difficult and painful with his chest tense and constricted from the cold, and his throat and nose burned too. Even after coughing again and again, he couldn't escape the feeling that there was something in his lungs keeping him from getting enough air.

He felt the ground beneath his back, and warmth all around him. Someone was there, loosely gripping his shoulder and brushing the wet hair back from his face. It was still too bright, but when he peered through a squinted eye, vision adjusting slowly, there was Troyard looking down at him. His dripping hair glistened in the sun, framed by an azure sky, and droplets gathered along his dark lashes, rolling off each time he blinked. As paradisiacal as his surroundings appeared to him, with its lush greens and blues, the gentle warmth of the fragrant air and the sounds of birds and rustling leaves, he was glad that this was not the afterlife. Somehow, Troyard had brought him back. He went limp against the ground, still gasping and coughing as he tried to make up for the air he'd been deprived of for too long.

"I...I'm sorry..." came Troyard's voice, and Inaho thought his ears must be deceiving him if not for the genuinely distressed expression that accompanied those words. "I wasn't thinking."

 _"Obviously,"_ Inaho would have liked to retort, but only coughed instead. His breathing was beginning to steady, but talking was still out.

As he lay on his back, staring up at the cloudless mid morning sky, he realized that they must have been underground for quite some time. It had been evening when they took shelter in that cave, and fell through into the pit. Neither of them had slept a wink, either. Wherever they were now seemed like a good place to stop and rest, and so that was precisely what he did. He was exhausted enough to sleep for days.

Troyard was not finished, however. "I had to open the door to let some light in, or I'd have come after you earlier. It's a good thing you thought to stay put, or else I'd have had a hard time finding you."

He hadn't anchored himself to be saved - rather the opposite - but there was no sense in mentioning that to Troyard. He nodded once and closed his eye to rest some more.

"Ah, the tack's wet through," Troyard spoke again, apparently oblivious to the fact that someone was trying to sleep, and digging without permission through the pack that did not belong to him, "I don't suppose it'll dry in the sun?"

"No, it won't," Inaho replied hoarsely, "We'll eat it wet, and save the other provisions. It's been a while since we've had a meal."

Waterlogged sea biscuits were hardly a meal, but more than ever they needed to be careful with their food supply.

"Mm… but there's a lot of it. A pity it can't be preserved somehow. Ah, the gunpowder, too..."

Inaho sighed, and sat up. "We don't need that."

"You're getting up? You should probably rest. Oh, but give me your shirt, I'll hang it to dry."

Only now did he notice that Troyard had already removed the majority of his own clothing and was sitting amongst a cloud of blue wildflowers in nothing but his drawers. His first thought was to wonder when and why Troyard had been flogged, but remembering his manners, he did not let his gaze linger long. Troyard's past was his own business. Following suit, he peeled off his own sopping wet clothes, starting with his saturated boots, and allowed Troyard to hang the fabric articles in the branches of a nearby tree.

The sun felt warm on his skin, and along with a soft summer breeze, he was dry in no time. It was tempting to stay in this comfortable place, but there was probably some kind of danger here as well. They shouldn't let their guard down too much simply because everything appeared to be fine. Nightfall was especially concerning, but it was many hours away yet and for now they could rest and regroup.

"We should leave here before sunset," said Troyard, seemingly reading his thoughts. "This place is terrifying enough in the daylight, I'd hate to see what emerges in the dark."

Inaho glanced around again. Had he missed something? At the moment nothing looked particularly threatening, but then he hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings until just now.

Troyard stood up to hang the now empty satchel from the tree to dry. "You don't see it?" he glanced over his shoulder at Inaho, "Well then, don't stray too far, and don't touch anything. And I do mean _anything_ , Kaizuka. I haven't had a chance examine this place thoroughly, but on the way here I noticed many deadly flowers blooming by the path. This little lawn is about the only place that appeared safe. The path led right to it, so we'll assume only the path and this spot are free of danger. Don't drink from that creek, either, I'll get water from the cave in a little while. It's likely filled with toxins from the plants here."

"You intend to go back into that trap?" If some accident befell Troyard, he doubted he had the energy left to rescue him.

"It shouldn't be dangerous now that we've made it through, and if the door hasn't been closed again. Either way, it's our only option. Unless," Troyard flashed him a wicked grin, "you'd rather perish from thirst."

"A tempting alternative, knowing that you would share in that fate," he returned moodily.

Troyard's grin vanished, and he rose to his feet with a sigh. "You're really no fun at all, Kaizuka."

"I fail to see the fun in contemplating a torturous death. Where are you going?"

"To get the water. I'm not risking that door closing, and I especially don't want to die if it's to be with you."

* * *

About an hour later, the two had set up a small picnic of soggy sea biscuits and fresh, ice cold cave water. Inaho stretched out his legs in the grass and leaned back on his hands, determined to relax and enjoy this respite even if it was a false paradise. Troyard sat a short distance away, cross-legged, biscuit in mouth, and meticulously separating wet sheets of paper - the remaining pages from his father's book, which he must have had tucked somewhere in his clothes and that now needed to be dried along with everything else.

"Everything here seems to require two to continue," Troyard mused, half to himself, "yet the second person is always in danger if the first is careless or has ill intentions. It's practically asking us to kill one another."

"If that's the case, I'd rather go on in front next time."

Troyard laughed cynically. "There's no need - I won't allow you to die, Kaizuka. I have never lied about that."

Whether that was true or not made him no more eager to experience another brush with death just yet. Besides, it was what Troyard was _not_ saying that was most telling. "Is it actually that you don't trust me?"

"Hmm?" Troyard hummed through an amused smile, "I trust your desire to live. As long as that holds, you'll not let me die, either. I'm sure we can both agree that there are no illusions of affection between us, but rather that our individual interests are reliant on mutual survival."

Inaho gave him a tired look. "Then there's no problem. I will lead for a while."

"Very well. Don't run into more trouble."

Troyard's assumption that the same rules applied to everything in this place was hardly fact, and very likely false, but in light of their circumstances for now he would keep his suspicions to himself. There could certainly be a point where only one would be allowed to continue, and in that event he would do what was necessary. But then, perhaps Troyard was also keeping quiet on the subject, and intended to mislead him with false security.

"Kaizuka, don't move," ordered Troyard suddenly, in a deathly serious tone.

Inaho froze. "What is it?" he asked, and felt himself beginning to sweat as he followed the other's gaze downward. There in the grass by his hand was a snake. Before he could stop himself, he jerked away from it on reflex. It reacted just as fast, springing back in preparation to strike. Fully expecting fangs to sink into his flesh at any second, Inaho cringed and recoiled. He waited for it, heart pounding in his ears, but nothing happened.

"Kaizuka, you're actually an idiot," he heard Troyard say, and he looked up into two frightened eyes. The snake itself was nowhere to be seen.

Inaho sprung to his feet and looked around frantically. "What happened to it?!"

"I threw it. Over there somewhere, I think. It won't come back, it only attacked because you threatened it."

In all his life he had probably never felt so relieved as he did at hearing those words. He slumped back to the grass and put his face into his hands. "That was reckless. It could have bitten you."

"It did."

"... what?"

"How many times do I have to tell you that I won't let you die? Even if it's due to your own stupidity."

Inaho stared at him in disbelief. "What about your talk of 'mutual survival'? Your logic is terribly flawed."

"Nevermind all that. This quest can be tried over, it's been here for centuries and will be for ages to come, but I can't revive you once you're dead. In any case, I'm certain that woman will skewer me if I dare to return alone. You'll be the death of me either way, I suppose," Troyard added, and examined his arm with tired eyes.

"Nothing you say makes any sense," muttered Inaho. "The bite, is it serious? Will you-"

"I don't know. My knowledge of wildlife is limited, and I only saw it for a moment. But I think it's safe to assume that anything we encounter here is not to be taken lightly. We should probably press on and not waste any more time taking rests, or you may wind up trapped here alone."

Troyard's calm acceptance of his own circumstances whilst insisting that Inaho live on was quickly becoming irritating. Not that this was unexpected - by now he was used to the man doing things by his own whim, with what might have held true one moment turning to something else completely different the next. He drew a long breath and leaned forward. "Troyard, let me see it."

With reluctance Troyard relinquished his arm and watched in silence as Inaho emptied his canteen over the bleeding wounds, cleaning the area as best he could. Inaho then took the driest strip of shirt he could find and tied it snugly as a bandage. Troyard's arm had begun to swell somewhat, but it did not look too bad yet.

"I revise my theory," Troyard stated thoughtfully as he turned his arm over to inspect Inaho's work, "This place will kill us whether we cooperate or not."

"I don't see any reason for that. Whatever lies at the end of this may be trying to protect itself, but up till now there's always been some way out. If a path is not meant to be traveled, then why does it exist? That is why I believe we're missing something here. If the point was to kill us, it would have done so at the beginning. Why now and here? This garden is far too arbitrary if we view it as simply a trap, but if it were to have a solution, or a loophole, then it would align with this island's logic."

Troyard scoffed as he stood up to retrieve their drying belongings from the tree. "What kind of solution, exactly? A room full of antidotes somewhere?"

"It's not impossible. We have yet to explore the path ahead."

"Hah. Perhaps. If you're right, then I hope you are prepared, Kaizuka," Troyard ran a thumb over the bandage, lightly tracing fire red lines that had already begun to spread from beneath it, "because the price for a miracle will most certainly be hell."


	4. Chapter 4

"I don't like the look of it," mumbled Troyard, his back against a wall of rock and his gaze set disapprovingly on their latest discovery. They had followed the path out of the deadly paradise without any further incidents, only to find themselves underground once again. This time, however, there was some filtered light, and the way through the caverns was spacious. So much so, that there was some danger of getting lost if one strayed too far into the shadows. Now before them was a sort of underground oasis with a pool of clear, glistening water, which came pouring in from a fissure up above, and at its center was very small island with something lying on its grass. The thing glowed, and though it was difficult to tell from such a distance, it appeared to be made of something like glass or crystal.

"I'll bet that's your cure-all," Inaho conjectured, "the 'room full of antidotes', if you will. I'll get it. It can't hurt to try."

Troyard frowned, his eyes still fixed ahead. His fingers brushed idly over the growing web of red lines just under the skin of his forearm. Inaho sighed inwardly. There was no time to waste, they had to find some means of nullifying the venom. There was nothing very dramatic about Troyard's symptoms thus far, except perhaps cosmetically, but that didn't mean there wouldn't be a sudden, delayed onset. He seemed tired, but then that was natural considering they hadn't yet managed to sleep since entering this place. They were both exhausted.

"We should continue on towards the end," spoke Troyard at last, "We haven't the time for this sort of unnecessary excursion."

"Unnecessary? You could perish within the hour, for all we know."

"All the more reason to press on."

Inaho's jaw tightened and he looked again at what they were about to give up. He was so certain it would cure Troyard. Surely there was some sort of hidden obstacle to overcome in order to obtain it, but they had already managed to come this far. He was confident he could do it. "I'll only be a few minutes."

"Kaizuka. Don't." Warning eyes angled up at him, and for a brief moment he felt inclined to do as he was told. But as their eyes locked, he noticed that Troyard was trembling, and his breathing was not quite regular.

Inaho shook his head with resolve. "Will you save my life, and then deny me the chance to save yours?"

Troyard gave a long sigh. "Kaizuka," he repeated quietly, pulling himself to his feet as he spoke, "I know what I said before, but this isn't your fault. You have no obligation to endanger yourself for my sake. If we delay, and something happens to you, I may not be able to come to your aid, and I especially won't have enough hours left to accompany you to the end. If you do this, we could very well both die."

"You have very little faith in me, for someone who went through such great lengths to obtain my help."

Troyard laughed softly, and his lips parted as if to reply, but no words came. Instead, he leaned forward suddenly and sank to his knees. His hands shook as they curled against the stone floor.

"Are you alright?" Inaho hurried forward to assist, but was waved away.

After an agonizing moment of suspense, Troyard glanced up at him through sweat-drenched hair. "Don't stare at me," he protested faintly, with a strained smile that did little to conceal his distress, "really, Kaizuka… please-"

Inaho had only just turned away when Troyard emptied the contents of his stomach onto the cave floor. The silence that followed was unbearable. Inaho began to wonder if Troyard was really alright, or if maybe he'd collapsed. "Troyard?" he ventured. If the venom had already spread so far as to make him this sick, he could have even less time than they'd imagined.

Troyard vomited twice again before finally responding. "Shall we head on?" he inquired casually, as though nothing very out of the ordinary had just happened.

"Are you mad?!" demanded Inaho. He turned briskly on his heel to face Troyard.

Troyard blinked at him over his upturned canteen, from which he was now taking small sips. His eyes seemed to be barely focused, and there were beads of sweat on his brow. Wiping his mouth and returning the cap to the canteen, Troyard cleared his throat. "Who knows," he chuckled, "but I'm not the one who suggested walking willingly into that death trap."

"It's no longer a suggestion. Wait here until I return."

Without waiting for a reply, Inaho set his things down and headed for the edge of the water. He looked into it, trying to see if there was anything lurking beneath, but the sunlight that streamed in from above cast a shimmering glare over the surface, making it impossible to see what lay below. He did notice, however, now that he was closer, a line of stepping stones leading straight to the little island. It was leading from the other side of the pool, the half that was shrouded slightly in mists and shadows. Without delay, Inaho began making his circuit around the edge, glancing around him all the while in an attempt to notice as many potential hazards as possible. There wasn't much hope of his foreseeing something amiss in a place so lovely, but he would try anyway.

Before placing his foot on the first stone, he glanced across the water, just to be sure Troyard was still there. Not that he expected him to have gone on, but it was reassuring to know that nothing had carried him off, at least. The figure lying on the ground there both set him at ease and lent him a new sense of urgency, and he began his journey across the water.

* * *

It was strange, and disconcerting, how easy this was. He began to fear that if he took the thing at the middle, it might trigger this whole place to fall apart, or some such calamity that would kill the both of them. But then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone standing at the edge of the water. His heartbeat quickened, though if it was a human he felt fairly confident of his odds. The shadow moved, flickering in and out of sight, until there it was at the first stepping stone. He let out a breath of relief. It was only Troyard.

"What are you doing? I'll fetch it, you should rest."

He turned to continue on, but there was Troyard again. Inaho started and nearly slipped backwards off the stone. At this point he began to feel a growing sense of dread. Something was terribly off. He tried to snatch a look at the far shore, in hopes of confirming that Troyard was not, in fact, still lying there, but was interrupted by something brushing against him, and looked downwards instead. His stomach lurched at the sight below him. The water had been tainted with blood, and at his feet was a woman, her weak hand clinging to his pant leg. She looked up at him with resentful eyes.

"Y-Yuki?!" He recognized her immediately and leaned down to her with a trembling hand.

But no sooner had he moved toward her, than she slipped away beneath the surface. He stared at the murky red ripples, too stunned to think. Yet the longer he stood there doing nothing, the more he began to notice the terrible things all around. Troyard was still before him, now gripping a bloody knife, a dark smile on his lips. Others appeared, littering the water, and seeping from every crack and opening in the walls was a thick, moving black cloud. It advanced slowly, soundlessly across the water towards him, swallowing up everything in its path. He had to get quickly to the island before it reached him, but Troyard was standing in his way. The panic he felt was strange, as though it wasn't truly his. He was quite certain that none of this was actually happening, and yet, it was all so realistic. Either way, the fear was real, and he no longer possessed the mental faculties to explain it away.

Finding that his dread of Troyard was significantly less than his horror of the creeping shadow, he advanced boldly in hopes of maybe dispersing this one figment of his imagination by physically proving its nonexistence. But Troyard only moved someplace else, always just too far away, and at the same time too close. A glance at the empty far shore did not help settle matters in his mind. If he was honest with himself, this _could_ actually be happening. It wasn't impossible.

A cloud must have passed over the sun, because suddenly the bright shimmering was gone, and everything became dim. As he jumped hastily over the stones towards the center, he could now see beneath the surface more clearly, though it was still clouded with blood and swamped with things he did not want to see. He immediately regretted looking. Something was indeed down there, a grayish creature weaving silently through a forest of white branches. Whether they were branches or bones, he couldn't quite tell, but for his own comfort it was best to assume that they were the more pleasant of the two. At last, somehow managing to shut out everything around him for a few desperate moments and focus his teetering steps in a forward direction, he reached the island and hastily snatched up the vial that lay there, before it, too, could transform to something he would not want to touch. He quickly put the silver chain it hung from around his neck. It would be no good if he dropped it by mistake. Now for the journey back.

He turned to face what he'd been able to run away from all this time, now wondering how on earth he was meant to run _towards_ it. Perhaps if he shut his eyes… but then he might fall into the water, and who knows if that thing was actually there or not. Most likely it was, and if it was, those branches were likely bones. The bones of others who had died here, probably from falling into the water.

All this time, he'd been thinking that even if this was terrifying, it was actually a harmless venture, and he could complete the mission simply by forcing his way through the nightmare. But what if not everything was in his mind? It was unlikely that something in this place would be truly safe, and thus there must be some real danger here. So which of these things were real, and which were not? Suddenly, all his fears seemed justified, and he stood, unable to move, at the center of the island, simply watching as the shadow glided across the grass and over his boots.

* * *

Inaho blinked, eyelashes catching as they fluttered against something warm covering his face. He reached up to pull it away. He tugged at it, but it wouldn't budge.

"How are you feeling?" someone asked, and he recognized the voice as Troyard's.

Had something happened to him? He tried to think back to the last thing he could remember. Ah, yes, he was on an unfortunate quest with Troyard, and Troyard was terribly ill. He had set out to fetch some kind of glowing object from the center of a pool… but what had happened after that, he could not remember. Maybe he had slipped and fallen. His head did hurt a great deal, now that he thought about it, though it felt more like he'd had too much to drink than fallen on his head.

"Well enough, I suppose," he responded tentatively, "what happened?"

The pause was a little too long. "Ah. You don't remember…" Troyard sounded pensive, yet pleased, and removed his hands from Inaho's face. Only then did Inaho realize his head was cradled in Troyard's lap, and the man was peering down at him with scrutiny.

"Why were you covering my face?" He might also have asked why he was lying in such a position, but he figured one thing might explain the other.

Troyard seemed to be debating whether to speak, but eventually answered with a sigh: "Because you'd have clawed out your own eye."

Inaho tried to put the pieces together through the fog in his head. Clearly he had actually already attempted the mission, and somehow returned alive, but something had happened to him along the way. He could only think of one thing it could be. "Was I poisoned by something?"

Troyard nodded hesitantly. "I suppose you could say that." He was probably afraid of reviving the memory somehow by talking about it, but there was literally no trace of it left, and Inaho felt rather certain that it wouldn't return simply by mentioning it. It would probably revisit him on its own on some future night in the form of a terrible nightmare.

"Did I succeed?"

Troyard nodded again, and held up his arm. The bite had vanished completely. "It was a narrow scrape, but you survived it."

Inaho raised a hand to rub his face, but something caught his eye. He looked more closely at his fingers. All of them were covered with blood. He looked back at Troyard. "This was more than just a mild poisoning - what exactly happened? Who's..."

Troyard looked down at him for a long time. Then he sighed, and leaned back on his hands. "By the time you returned to the shore, you'd lost all reason. I can't say I'm surprised that I featured as a villain in your hallucinations, but it was quite convenient for drawing you back to safety without having to go fetch you, since you seemed rather keen on annihilating me. Thankfully, you were more weakened and disoriented than I was, and had left all but one of your weapons with me, so I was able to restrain you without too much difficulty. That mist over the water at the other side must be the source. Once you were away from it, within a few hours the effects faded considerably and you calmed down enough to sleep."

"Hours?! I'm sorry, are you alright?"

"Of course I am. You were right, that was a cure-all. If it couldn't heal a few scratches, it would be a sorry reward for what you endured to retrieve it. Thank you, truly."

Inaho never thought he'd live to see the day when Troyard thanked him, but then he'd also heard Troyard apologize not twenty-four hours prior. Perhaps it was truly a day of miracles. "That's a relief..." he murmured in reply, relaxing a bit, despite his lingering apprehension. This, like the false paradise, was no place for him to let down his guard. Anything could happen without warning. Inaho tried to sit up, so that he could gather his things for their departure, but was prevented by two arms sliding over his shoulders. He felt the gentle weight of Troyard's folded hands settle on his chest.

"Rest a while longer, at least until the bleeding stops. You tore at yourself pretty badly... I suppose you imagined there was something under your skin."

Inaho closed his eyes, too tired to protest such a welcome order. If he had slept, it hadn't been for long, and anyway his head was still throbbing terribly. "Wake me if something happens," he murmured, and drifted off into the deepest sleep he'd had in days.


End file.
